Citing this Excerpt

Oral History Interview with Stanford Raynold Brookshire, August 18, 1975. Interview B-0067. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) in the Southern Oral History Program Collection, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Full Text of the Excerpt

BILL MOYE:

That, in a way, is why I was asking that. It seems that the group who
wanted consolidation might have realized, before appointing such a broad
commission, that by appointing such a broad commission you might open
the door to getting beyond what they wanted into a sort of
unworkable...

STANFORD RAYNOLD BROOKSHIRE:

Well, I guess we just weren't wise enough or smart enough to
see that. Didn't anticipate that. Back to the point I just
made or the opinion that I expressed that pure democracy
doesn't work, I'll illustrate that. During the
hearings for the proposed goals for Charlotte Mecklenburg last May a
year ago in one of the meetings which I attended, one man got up and
proposed that one of the goals provide for a referendum on city and
county budgets. That before adopting a city budget, for example, the
City Council would hold a city-wide referendum to approve the proposed
budget. That particular individual also wanted, after the adoption of
such a budget, all expenditures of over $100, I believe he
said, to be approved by referendum. Well, can you
imagine...

BILL MOYE:

You'd have a hard time.

STANFORD RAYNOLD BROOKSHIRE:

The administration of city affairs would get stalled on the first
referendum. But, that would be pure democracy if everybody had a right
to say how the city money was to be spent under given budgets.